Our History

The Discerning Collection was set up in 2011 by the previous owners of award-winning Tapestry Holidays, Nick and Viv Wrightman and a small experienced team, all of whom both in the UK and overseas were part of the of the old Tapestry.

Initially the company was 50% owned by Travel Counsellors but in November 2014, Nick and Viv engineered a management buyout and now own 100% of this exciting venture.

Just like at Tapestry Holidays, our aim is to provide our guests with a unique holiday experience, veering away from the typical package holiday ethos and offer a professional, personal and friendly service to a wonderful selection of boutique hotels and luxury villas in Turkey, Greece, Morocco, Mallorca and new for 2016, the beautiful island of Sardinia.

All our properties have been visited by our staff in order to ensure that there is a good fit with our guests expectations and that service levels are at a maximum.

Historically we have, like most good tour operators, complied with the ATOL regulations and provided our guests with Financial security. However, as of the 1st November 2014 we have gone one step further and to give our guests even more protection we have set up our own ‘trust account’ which means that your money is held in this trust until after you return from your holiday.

Only the flight portion of the money you have paid is used and then only to pay for the flights that you have chosen. We cannot touch your money to fund our cash flow to pay for items such as salaries or even accommodation costs until you have returned from your well-deserved holiday. So your money and even the hotel owner’s money are completely protected.

Only a handful of operators in the UK use a trust account and we are proud to be one of the few. We believe that all Tour Operators should use a trust account as this gives you so much more protection and means that we have to manage our business without using our guest’s money.

As a rule of thumb beware of any travel companies who offer you a great reduction in price if you ‘Pay in Full’ for your holiday months before you are due to travel. It more often than not means that they are using your cash to fund their business. So as the saying goes…just say no!

Just remember when booking with us every element of your holiday is completely protected. Your flights, transfers to the resort, car hire, hotel, riad and villa are all financially protected.